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From his inauspicious headquarters in Adel, Iowa (pop. 4,000), Harry Stine has accumulated a $3 billion fortune by revolutionizing the agriculture industry. He owns Stine Seed, the largest private seed company in the world and the developer of some of the most valuable agricultural products on Earth. Long the king of soybean genetics, the 72-year-old hasn't grown tired of tinkering and rethinking his industry, and his latest innovations to corn genetics could help double the output of the world's most popular crop.

To Stine, who grew up in poverty on the same farmland his empire resides today, entrepreneurship and innovation is second-nature. Stine is a frequent guest at entrepreneurial summits and gatherings in his home state. Here are some of the tips and business insights that have contributed to Stine's prolific career and could benefit entrepreneurs anywhere:

1. Get a Liberal Arts Degree

Stine graduated from McPherson College -- a small liberal arts school in Kansas. Many courses he took didn’t immediately apply to the work he did on his father’s farm after graduating. But over the course of his career, he’s often benefited from knowledge he gleaned from different classes.

“I strongly think that a wide, diverse background is advantageous for an entrepreneur,” Stine says.

None was more significant than the one business law course he took. Stine was the first in his industry to protect the intellectual property of the plants he was breeding via legal contract -- long before full patent protection existed. It has frequently resulted in legal confrontation -- including lawsuits with multinational conglomerates. Stine almost always wound up on top, due in large part to Stine’s legal strategy.

“Almost every day, part of the day is dedicated to contracts or litigation. Every single day,” he says.

2. Be Born An Entrepreneur

Understanding the genetics behind plants and soybeans has made Stine Seed a quietly dominant company. But it’s not that kind of genetics that Stine credits for his success. Instead, he says it was genetic gift of entrepreneurial spirit, something that people inherit in the same way they might their height or athletic ability.

“You can't make an entrepreneur out of a person who doesn't have some inclination in that direction. People tend not to understand that,” Stine says.

Environment and conditioning certainly contribute -- even the most athletically gifted can’t make a professional basketball career without proper guidance and training -- but your DNA ultimately controls whether you’ve got the capacity for it.

3. Be Ready To Adapt

The seed industry used to be flush with small, mom-and-pop operations. Most have vanished as the industry consolidated around a handful of major corporations. And it’s still changing. Stine doesn’t expect his current soybean licensing deals will remain immensely lucrative in perpetuity, and the company has responded with by coming up with innovations in corn genetics, increasing its retail arm and establishing a competitive biotechnology lab.

“Any industry is constantly changing. You better change with it and move ahead, or you better get out of the way,” Stine says.

4. Don't Make Excuses

Stine struggled mightily with school as a young child. He wouldn't find out till decades later that he had dyslexia and mild, high-functioning autism -- diagnoses that were all but nonexistent when he was in school in the 1940s.

He never once felt sorry for himself or used those disadvantages and reasons for not overachieving. Instead, he embraced his short-coming and made them part of his success.

“We can all claim ‘I would’ve done great if I didn’t have this problem or that problem.’ Well, baloney. We make excuses for what we haven’t done well.”

5. Love What You Do: When Work Is Your Play

Stine is usually at his office by 6:15 a.m. in the morning. He works long hours compared with the traditional American work week. But his work -- solving genetic limitations to crop farming and dominating an industry overcrowded by enormous companies like , and DuPont -- is far more stimulating and engaging to him than hobbies he’s had over the years.